Foto: Jürgen Vogel/LVR-LandesMuseum Bonn
Foto: Jürgen Vogel/LVR-LandesMuseum Bonn
Rhenish stoneware was the first ceramic product to transcend the scope of European markets and spread across the globe. This is the basic concept that has given rise to the title of the workshop "RHENISH STONEWARE. Local product - global player". The workshop, organised by the LVR-LandesMuseum Bonn, the LVR-Amt für Bodendenkmalpflege im Rheinland and the Department of Medieval Archaeology, University of Tübingen, aims to investigate the worldwide distribution, use and significance of Rhenish stoneware. Our workshop, kindly funded by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, will allow us to bring together an international panel of experts from several continents and various scientific disciplines to discuss this category of objects in the context of various globalisation processes. This is particularly important if we are to overcome the inherent Eurocentric perspective that still dominates our field of research today.
Together, we will approach the topic from two sides: from the superordinate (cultural)-historical processes and phenomena (such as production processes, commodity flows and aspects of globalisation) on the one hand, and from the contextualised objects themselves, i.e. their material appearance, functions and archaeological contexts, on the other. Various tools will be considered: the entire spectrum of archaeological methodology including modern archaeometric analytical approaches and historical research using written sources, supplemented by theoretical concepts concerning the relationships between objects and humans (where objects are also viewed as actors). By doing so, the workshop aims to initiate a dialogue that connects the object layer with large-scale commodity flows and socio-economic processes, as there is often a gap between local/regional studies and global dissemination, but also between object-related analysis and the embeddedness in higher-level structures, mechanisms and concepts. In order to better understand this process and where the sources allow, special focus will be put on one characteristic vessel type within the stoneware spectrum: the highly iconic “Bartmann Jug”.
In order to keep the workshop as open as possible, we intend to offer interested individuals the opportunity to follow the lecture sessions online and participate in the discussions. For this purpose, you can register your attendance by sending your name and e-mail address to Antje Schünemann (Antje.Schuenemann@lvr.de); you will receive a link to the livestream of the conference in due course.
The language of the workshop will be English.
Der Workshop wird in englischer Sprache stattfinden.
